Tangle - The Latest In The 2024 Election

Episode Date: August 15, 2024

Less than a month after President Joe Biden announced he was dropping his bid for reelection, Democrats have transformed their ticket, spurring a shift in the polls and renewing voter engagement. With Vice President Kamala Harris officially replacing Biden as the Democratic nominee and naming Gov. Tim Walz (MN) as her running mate, both parties have sought to reestablish their footing and adapt their campaign messaging to the new dynamics of the race. You can read today's podcast⁠ ⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠, our “Under the Radar” story ⁠here and today’s “Have a nice day” story ⁠here⁠.You can watch the entire Tangle Live event at City Winery NYC on our YouTube Channel!Check out Episode 5 of our podcast series, The Undecideds. Please give us a 5-star rating and leave a comment!Today’s clickables: A quick note (0:35), Quick hits (2:06), Today’s story (3:27) Right’s take (6:24), Left’s take (10:08), Isaac’s take (13:58), Questions Answered (19:56), Under the Radar (22:48), Numbers (22:32), Have a nice day (25:32)You can subscribe to Tangle by clicking here or drop something in our tip jar by clicking here. Help share Tangle.I'm a firm believer that our politics would be a little bit better if everyone were reading balanced news that allows room for debate, disagreement, and multiple perspectives. If you can take 15 seconds to share Tangle with a few friends I'd really appreciate it. Email Tangle to a friend here, share Tangle on X/Twitter here, or share Tangle on Facebook here.Take the survey: Who do you think is most likely to win the 2024 presidential election? Let us know!Our podcast is written by Isaac Saul and edited and engineered by Dewey Thomas. Music for the podcast was produced by Diet 75. Our newsletter is edited by Managing Editor Ari Weitzman, Will Kaback, Bailey Saul, Sean Brady, and produced in conjunction with Tangle’s social media manager Magdalena Bokowa, who also created our logo. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

From Searchlight Pictures comes A Real Pain, one of the most moving and funny films of the year. Written and directed by Oscar-nominated Jesse Eisenberg and starring Eisenberg and Emmy Award winner Kieran Culkin, A Real Pain is a comedy about mismatched cousins who reunite for a tour through Poland to honor their beloved grandmother. The adventure takes a turn when the pair's old tensions resurface against the backdrop of their family history. A Real Pain was one of the buzziest titles at Sundance Film Festival this year, garnering rave reviews and acclaim from both critics and audiences alike. See A Real Pain only in theaters November 15th.

Oh, that coffee smells good. Can you pass me the sugar when you're finished? Whoa, whoa, whoa, what are you doing? That's salt, not sugar. Let's get you another coffee. Feeling distracted? You're not alone. Many Canadians are finding it hard to focus with mortgage payments on their minds. If you're struggling with your payments, speak to your bank.

The earlier they understand your situation, the more options and relief measures could be available to you. Learn more at Canada.ca slash it pays to know. A message from the Government of Canada. Based on Charles Yu's award-winning book, Interior Chinatown follows the Government of Canada. families' buried history, and what it feels like to be in the spotlight. Interior Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+. From executive producer Isaac Saul, this is Tangle. Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening, and welcome to the Tangle Podcast, the place where we get views from across the political spectrum,

some independent thinking, and a little bit of my take. I'm your host, Isaac Saul, and on today's episode, we're going to be talking about the 2024 election. I'm going to be breaking down some of the latest polls we have. There's some interesting movement here. I mean, I think safe to say the race is basically a toss-up. I'm going to be talking about who I think has the advantage and why. And we're going to share some opinions, as always, from the left and the right.

Before we jump in, though, one last promo for tomorrow's Friday edition coming out in the right. Before we jump in though, one last promo for tomorrow's Friday edition coming out in the newsletter. I'm going to be writing a personal essay about the current situation in Gaza and some of what we've learned about Israel and its actions over the last few months and talking about my personal connection to the region and how my feelings continue to evolve about this conflict and where I am now. This is a difficult piece that I've been working on and writing, and I'm still working on and still kind of massaging and addressing in different ways. But I think it's an important one. And I know, you know, some people are going to be upset.

Some people are going to be happy. Some people are going to have mixed feelings about it. I'm just trying to write honestly about what I'm seeing and feeling. And, you know, that's my promise to readers. So if you're interested in getting that, it's going to be a subscribers-only Friday edition. It'll be released tomorrow around noon. And you can become a member of Tangle by going to readtangle.com and clicking membership and becoming a member if you want it in your inbox.

So I encourage you to do that. With that out of the way, I'm going to pass it over to John for today's main story, and I'll be back for my take. Thanks, Isaac, and welcome, everybody. Here are your quick hits for today. First up, the World Health Organization declared the deadly new form of MPOX, formerly known as monkeypox, spreading through Africa a global health emergency. day. First up, the World Health Organization declared the deadly new form of MPOX, formerly known as monkeypox, spreading through Africa a global health emergency. Number two, Russia has

recalled troops from Ukraine to its southwestern Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces continue to advance into Russian territory. Number three, over 450,000 of the 3.3 million people living in Puerto Rico are without power after Hurricane Ernesto made landfall yesterday. Number four, Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will not seek re-election next month, saying he had lost the public's trust after a series of scandals. And number five, Columbia University's President Minosh Shafiq resigned yesterday in the wake of her handling of Israel-Hamas war protests on campus. And now for today's topic, which is the latest in the 2024 election. New national polling numbers show Kamala Harris pulling ahead of Donald Trump in the general election. Still early, but again, quoting Churchill for the 18th time, at least it's now sort of the end of the beginning.

We're about to get into the full swing of the campaign. You've got new numbers. Democrats have transformed their tickets, spring a shift in the polls and renewing voter engagement. With Vice President Kamala Harris officially replacing Biden as the Democratic nominee and naming Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota as a running mate, both parties have sought to reestablish their footing and adapt their campaign messaging

to the new dynamics of the race. In the past week, a slew of major polls have shown Harris catching or overtaking former President Donald Trump in key battleground states. On Saturday, a New York Times Siena poll found Harris leading Trump by four points in three key swing states, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, a notable shift from their prior polling that consistently showed Trump leading or tied with Biden in those states.

On Wednesday, new polls from Cook Political Report and Pew Research showed similar momentum for Harris. Cook Political found her leading or tied with Trump in six of seven battleground states, while Pew found Harris leading Trump 46 to 45 percent nationally. Not every poll shows the same surge for Harris, though. The latest Fox News poll still showed Trump leading Harris 49 to 48 percent, the same margin as they found for Trump's lead over Biden in July. Broadly, 538's average of presidential polls gives Harris a 46.2 to 43.5% lead over Trump as of Thursday morning. Prior to Biden's exit from the race, Trump led polling averages 43.5 to 40.2%.

With two and a half months until Election Day, both parties are gearing up for a sprint to the finish. The Democratic National Convention is next week in Chicago, and ABC News will host the first debate between Trump and Harris on September 10th. Trump has also reportedly agreed to two additional debates in September. Meanwhile, Walz and Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance have agreed to a vice presidential debate hosted by CBS News on October 1st. The past weeks have also brought new challenges for each campaign. While the Harris campaign has brought in record fundraising and volunteer signups, Harris herself has faced criticism for not giving any interviews since becoming the Democratic nominee.

She recently suggested that she would schedule an interview before the end of August, but has not offered further details in the week since that comment. Additionally, Harris has been slow to roll out her campaign platform, though she plans to give her first policy-focused speech in North Carolina this week.

Conversely, Trump has been active in the media, including a two-hour live-streamed conversation on X with Elon Musk on Monday and a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago residence last Thursday. Those events followed Trump's contentious interview at the National Association of Black Journalists convention on July 31st. Separately, strategists on both sides have suggested that the Trump campaign is struggling to define its message against its new opponent. Today, we'll survey what commentators on the right and the left are saying about the latest in the presidential race

and then Isaac's take. We'll be right back after this quick break. From Searchlight Pictures comes A Real Pain, one of the most moving and funny films of the year. Written and directed by Oscar-nominated Jesse Eisenberg and starring Eisenberg and Emmy Award winner Kieran Culkin, A Real Pain is a comedy about mismatched cousins who reunite for a tour through Poland to honor their beloved grandmother. The adventure takes a turn when the pair's old tensions resurface against the backdrop of their family history.

A Real Pain was one of the buzziest titles at Sundance Film Festival this year, garnering rave reviews and acclaim from both critics and audiences alike. See A Real Pain only in theaters November 15th. Based on Charles Yu's award-winning book, Interior Chinatown follows the story of Willis Wu, a background character trapped in a police procedural

who dreams about a world beyond Chinatown. When he inadvertently becomes a witness to a crime, Willis begins to unravel a criminal web, his family's buried history, and what it feels like to be in the spotlight. Interior Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+. All right, first up, let's start with what the right is saying. The right points out that Harris's strategy of avoiding the media could backfire on her.

Some acknowledge that Harris's campaign has momentum, but say that Trump still has a path to victory. Others say Trump's campaign has been dysfunctional since Harris entered the race. In Blaze Media, Christopher Bedford wrote about Kamala's Wizard of Oz strategy and its danger. Harris is a mysterious public figure indeed. Despite hitting the campaign trail, she's managed to stay virtually entirely on script

and never off the cuff. She's distanced herself from her past positions, sponsorships, and even her current agenda, Bedford said. You might call it the Wizard of Oz campaign strategy. Pay no attention to that woman behind the curtain. The great her has spoken. It's not bad, brilliant in its simplicity, but with every passing day, the act grows a little more dangerous. Democrats are even telling reporters, on background of course, that there's no reason to muck up the enthusiasm and energy with policy. And they're right.

Democrats have nothing to gain and everything to lose by putting Harris on the stand. The strategy worked for Joe Biden in 2020. But he had COVID to hide behind it. And an incumbent weakened by his own COVID policies and consumed by his personal gripes and feuds. The unintended consequence of all that hiding, however, was declining public trust. and an incumbent weakened by his own COVID policies and consumed by his personal gripes and feuds. The unintended consequence of all that hiding, however, was declining public trust. When his actual abilities were finally revealed during the first re-election debate against former President Donald Trump, it all came tumbling down, Bedford wrote. The longer Harris waits before giving an interview, the closer the focus it will receive.

In red state, Jeff Charles said Harris' honeymoon phase won't last forever. These numbers aren't looking great for Trump, who has enjoyed favorable polling numbers, especially since his assassination attempt. But it is worth noting that much of Harris' favorability is coming from the unexpected polling bump after she became the nominee and announced her running mate. There's a decent chance that the honeymoon phase will soon wane

and the numbers might even out, Charles wrote. Still, it would not be wise for the right to discount this data. Harris is garnering a significant level of support. Harris's campaign is dominating the news cycle at the moment, which is an expected development since she just officially became the nominee. The vice president has also adopted a positive messaging strategy rather than relying solely on attacking her opponent. Moreover, she has been desperately avoiding the press and any unscripted encounters while giving rallies and playing to her strengths, Charles said. Now is the time for Team Trump to find a way to disrupt Harris's momentum instead of waiting for it to fade out on its own.

There's still plenty of time between now and November. In National Review, Mark Antonio Wright asked, Does Donald Trump know what time it is? Donald Trump is on track to lose this election. Is it impossible for him to turn things around? No, of course not. But the Trump campaign is behind. It's losing ground. It's running out of time, and it doesn't appear to have the nimbleness to adjust course and get back in the game, Wright wrote. Sure, any one poll can be an outlier. Sure, one may choose to doubt that Harris is really up four points in Midwestern blue wall states. One can discount the vibe shift or its effect on the

brass tacks of the horse race. But this is a real trend, and it's backed by a wide variety of data and a wide variety of sources. The question is, does Donald Trump know it? Does Donald Trump realize he's on track to lose? He sure doesn't seem to be acting like it, Wright said. As Harris locked up the nomination and galloped ahead in the polls, as Democratic enthusiasm surged and fundraising dollars poured in, Trump and his campaign have litigated whether Kamala Harris is actually black, boasted about his own crowd sizes,

and compared them to the crowd that witnessed Martin Luther King's I Have a Dream speech, and, in general, comported himself like a lunatic late at night on Truth Social. Inflation, mass illegal immigration, and chaos and weakness abroad have been complete afterthoughts. All right, that's it for what the right is saying, which brings us to what the left is saying. The left is encouraged by Harris's recent poll numbers, suggesting she's seized the upper hand in the race. Some argue Trump's campaign was not prepared to run against a non-Biden candidate. Others say the Harris and Trump campaigns both lack substance. In the Washington Post, Perry Bacon Jr. wrote, it's not just vibes. Harris is polling really well. We are in the middle of a Harris surge.

Basically, all election experts agree on that, and it shows up in numerous metrics. Harris is doing at least two percentage points better than Biden was in all seven major swing states, Bacon said. Biden trailed Trump about three points in national polls before he dropped out, according to FiveThirtyEight. Harris leads by two. A five-point swing is huge in today's deeply polarized politics. Harris's gains are coming from across demographics. She's doing better than Biden among Black, Latino, and white voters, those under 45 and over 45, and Democrats and independents. Journalists and political strategists and others have a lot of theories for why Harris is doing better, but the most important explanation is the obvious one. Many voters, including left-leaning ones,

had been saying for years that they felt Biden was too old and that they wanted a different Democratic candidate, Bacon wrote. As someone who really doesn't want another term of Trump, I love seeing these shifts. But while the past month has moved the race in the Democrats' direction, it's still very close. In MSNBC, Hayes Brown said, Trump is struggling. Most infuriating to Trump is his campaign being in a position it has rarely been in,

chasing the spotlight. Rather than setting the media's agenda every day, he's been forced to watch as Harris has sucked up all the oxygen in the room, Brown wrote. Trump hasn't been doing himself many favors in this post-Biden campaign. While Harris and Walz are crisscrossing six swing states introducing themselves this week, Trump is mostly off the campaign trail. His sudden decision to hold a press event was a clear attempt to draw the focus back to himself, an attempt that will likely prove to be less effective than it has been in the past. The problem is that Trump and his campaign spent the last several years preparing to run against Biden

and are having difficulty shifting gears, Brown said. It doesn't help that the Trump campaign hasn't landed on an effective message to deploy against Harris beyond the boilerplate anti-Democrat language that typifies the Trump era. Soft on crime, bad on the border, secretly a communist, you know the drill.

Without a firm strategy in place, we see Trump trying to find something, anything, that works. In The New Yorker, Jay Caspian Kang asked, how generic can Kamala Harris be? Does it actually matter if Kamala Harris stands for something? We know that Harris was a prosecutor. We know that Donald Trump and his running mate, J.D. Vance, are weird. And we know that Harris has erased much of Trump's lead in swing states and that things are looking up. But that's about the extent of it, Kang wrote. In tennis, a pusher is a player who safely returns the ball over the net again and again, waiting for an increasingly frustrated opponent to make a mistake. This appears to be campaign commonless strategy. Don't make any unforced errors. Keep things vanilla, and eventually Trump or Vance will implode.

As wildly different as Harris and Trump are, the campaigns seem to share a degree of indifference to the specifics of what their candidates are saying, because both campaigns realize that many of their voters are unconcerned about such details, or at the very least, are unlikely to be moved by them. What matters to many voters right now is their hatred and fear, however justified, of the opposing candidate and the fun they have calling the other side weird, dangerous, and deranged. Harris and Trump, under differing circumstances and in different ways, have floated above what was once the perfunctory and deeply unsexy muck of campaigning on a platform. All right, let's head over to Isaac for his take. All right, that is it for what the left and the right are saying, which brings us to my take. So a few weeks ago, my read on the 2024 race looked something roughly like this. Donald Trump was in the driver's seat, Democrats were the underdogs, but poll watchers were underestimating how many Americans still disliked Trump and how well organized the Democratic Party was on the ground. Basically,

my argument was that Trump was winning the race against Biden, but not by a whole lot because our country is very divided between the reds and the blues who really don't like each other right now. country is very divided between the reds and the blues who really don't like each other right now. I'm not sure whether this is going out on a limb or not, but today, Thursday, August 15th, 2024, where we are right now, I think Kamala Harris is in the driver's seat. But that lead might not stick. Remember, election dynamics can change very quickly. It has been exactly one month since someone tried to kill Trump. Since then, J.D. Vance became Trump's running mate, Biden dropped out of the race, Harris took over the nomination, and then chose Tim Walz as her running mate. This has basically been my mantra

for this entire election. A lot can happen in a week, let alone a month or months. But right now, Harris is winning. She's leading in the highest rated polls, which consistently show her ahead in swing states. She has received a massive surge of fundraising and inherited the campaign infrastructure that was keeping Biden relevant and has helped Democrats win most of the close and competitive races since 2018.

On the ground, her rallies are driving big audiences that might be typical for Trump, but are not typical for past Democratic nominees. She's pivoted the campaign's message away from democracy and toward freedom, which I think was a smart move, and she's emphasizing her own working-class bona fides to voters. A recent campaign ad talks about how she worked at McDonald's while going to college. In sum, she has launched an energetic, organized, fresh, and focused campaign, and she hit the ground running. Not incidentally, Democrats are strongly outperforming Republicans in the most watched and competitive Senate races, a clear signal of the

party's strength. Trump, meanwhile, seems to be in reset mode. His campaign needed a few weeks to start landing punches on hairs and walls, and his off-the-cuff style, which is often an asset, now looks more costly. He spends far too much time attacking Republicans, lamenting that Biden dropped out of the race, and ad-libbing about his crowd sizes. His pick for running mate is getting decidedly mixed reviews from the right and has become an easy target for the left. While Trump and Vance could and should be hammering Harris for all of her policy reversals and for moving wherever the political winds blow, they've spent way too much time simply complaining.

As I've said before, and I'll say again, Trump 2016 was often about you, but Trump 2024 is far too often about him. It's one of the biggest ways his campaign and his message have floundered and has rightly drawn criticisms from even his most adoring allies. often about him. It's one of the biggest ways his campaign and his message have floundered, and has rightly drawn criticisms from even his most adoring allies. The honeymoon bounce for Harris was entirely predictable. It might continue through the DNC next week, and it might even go on longer. Generic Democrats have long been polling ahead of Trump, so while Biden struggled, there

was always an opening for an alternative candidate. Given that Harris is still running behind Senate Democrats, it's even possible her numbers will keep improving. But there's another Harris factor at play here too. As comedian Tim Dillon put it, Harris is the one throwing the party, and the party always wins. Trump, to a lot of Americans, is now predictable. Yesterday, conservative pundit Megyn Kelly even called his ramblings boring. It's genuinely hard to overstate how serious of a problem this is for his campaign. A big part of Trump's appeal in 2016 was that he was novel, a flamethrower, and comedian unlike any we had ever seen in American politics. Novelty appeals to the masses, and it draws eyes and interests. And even if a lot of those eyes see something they don't like, plenty will see something they do. Right now, Democrats are drawing the eyes, and they

are throwing the party. Of course, that's going to dissipate at some point. How soon that happens, and with what kind of velocity, is probably what is going to determine the outcome of this race. Then there's the issue of transparency. Trump is standing before hostile press scrums and talking to the media regularly. Where is Harris? And what is her excuse? She isn't the president and she is in full campaign mode. Yet she hasn't sat down for one primetime interview, not even with the major networks

who could give her a friendly conversation, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, NBC, and certainly not with the harder hitters like Fox News or the Wall Street Journal. I'm a politics reporter, and I'm still unsure what she even believes. Electorally, that might even be the point. Again, a generic Democrat polls better than Trump. Whenever she does take a tough interview, and she could do so soon,

she's going to be challenged on her record. She'll be asked about her flip-flops, her role on the border as vice president, the Biden administration's record, and what she really believes now. One of three things will happen. She'll step on a few rakes, remind us why she struggled so much in the 2020 Democratic primary,

and bleed some support. Or two, she'll show that she is the refreshing and engaging candidate, giving us something new, and the enthusiasm will go into overdrive. Or three, she'll have some gaffes and some great moments, and each side will cherry pick those parts and the race will not actually change much. I don't have a crystal ball in my office,

so I can't say what direction we are headed. Right now, Harris is throwing the party, but she's also less tested, less known to the public, and less vetted than her opponent. It's hard to judge a candidate who has yet to even answer a tough question. One way or another, that's going to change before November 5th. We'll be right back after this quick break. From Searchlight Pictures comes A Real Pain, one of the most moving and funny films of the year.

Written and directed by Oscar-nominated Jesse Eisenberg and starring Eisenberg and Emmy Award winner Kieran Culkin, A Real Pain is a comedy about mismatched cousins who reunite for a tour through Poland to honor their beloved grandmother. The adventure takes a turn when the pair's old tensions resurface against the backdrop of their family history. A Real Pain was one of the buzziest titles at Sundance Film Festival this year, garnering rave reviews

and acclaim from both critics and audiences alike. See A Real Pain only in theaters November 15th. Whether renting, renewing a mortgage, or considering buying a home, everybody has housing costs

on their minds. For free tools and resources to help you manage your home finances, visit Canada.ca slash ItPaysToKnow. A message from the Government of Canada. Based on Charles Yu's award-winning book, Interior Chinatown follows the story of Willis Wu, a background character trapped in a police procedural

who dreams about a world beyond Chinatown. When he inadvertently becomes a witness to a crime, Willis begins to unravel a criminal web, his family's buried history, and what it feels like to be in the spotlight. Interior Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+. All right, that is it for my take,

which brings us to your questions answered. This one's from Matthew in Boston, Massachusetts. Matthew said, how much room do you think there is for politicians to openly disagree with their core constituents on very hot topics? For instance, it feels like the Republicans that have chosen the side of loudly criticizing Trump or supporting Biden are largely

on their way to being voted out by voters. So I think you'll find that the answer really depends on two things. First, how crucial to the identity of the party is the thing a politician is disagreeing with their constituents about? And two, what is the makeup of their district? For Republicans, the party's positions have been more aligned with the opinions of one person, Donald Trump, than at any time I can remember. For some of his positions, immigration, taxation, gun control, policing, education, etc., that doesn't create much tension with the mainstream conservative view. But others, abortion, the 2020 election, foreign policy, it does. We saw Trump refuse to admit that he lost the 2020 election, putting many Republicans in awkward positions. Some, like Senators Lindsey Graham and Josh

Hawley, followed Trump's lead and went as far as trying to legally challenge the results. Others, like Lisa Murkowski in moderately conservative Alaska, said they thought the election was fair and held their positions. Some, like Mark Lamb in Arizona, did the same and were primaried in their districts by candidates who adopted Trump's line. For Democrats, the divide is less about the party's leader and more about the progressive versus establishment divide. On Israel, for instance, you can see some politicians successfully bucking the party and some of their constituents,

someone like Representative Ilhan Omar, and others getting a lot of negative press and even losing races in part because of their constituents, someone like Representative Ilhan Omar, and others getting a lot of negative press and even losing races in part because of that position, someone like Representative Jamal Bowman. But you can also see examples where the reverse is true. For instance, Democrats who loudly criticized Biden actually survived his removal from the 2024 ticket and now look rather smart,

given the momentum Harris has. Democratic voters have mostly aligned behind that position, even though many objected to the idea a few months ago. On the whole, I think it's very uncommon for politicians to stake out controversial stances that are contrary to their voters' beliefs and survive, largely because there is always another politician willing to use their stance against them. Even Omar, you could argue, was representing a big chunk of her constituents and their feelings about Israel when she broke from the party, which is part of why she survived. Typically, if politicians disagree with their constituents on key issues in competitive

districts, you can all but write their political obituaries. All right, that is it for our reader question. I'm going to send it back to John for the rest of the pod. I'll see some of you guys tomorrow in your inbox for our Friday edition, and if not, we'll be back on Sunday with Ari and I riffing on the Sunday pod. We got a good one coming up, so stay tuned for that. We'll see you then. Have a good one. Peace. Thanks, Isaac. Here's your Under the Radar story for today, folks. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. saw a meeting with Democratic nominee Kamala Harris to discuss the

possibility of serving in her administration if he throws his support behind her campaign and she wins, Kennedy campaign officials told the Washington Post. Harris and her advisors have not responded with an offer to meet or shown interest in the proposal. Kennedy's offer comes just weeks after he reportedly made a similar approach to Republican nominee Donald Trump. The Kennedy campaign has produced polling allegedly showing that both Harris and Trump would benefit by publicly announcing that he was joining their administrations. The Washington Post has this story, and there's a link in today's episode description. All right, next up is our numbers section. The number of days until the election is 81. The number of days until the first presidential debate between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris is 26. The percentage of voters who said they were enthusiastic about the race between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump in June of 2024 was 48%, according to a Monmouth University poll.

38%, according to a Monmouth University poll. The percentage of voters who said they were enthusiastic about the race in August after Vice President Harris replaced Biden on the Democratic ticket was 68%. The increase in the percentage of Democrats who say they are enthusiastic about the election between June and August is 39%. The increase in the percentage of independents who say they are enthusiastic about the election between June and August is 19%. The change in percentage of Republicans who say they are enthusiastic about the election between June and August is zero. Harris's net favorability rating with registered voters is minus 3%, according to an August 2024 Fox News poll. Trump's net favorability rating with registered voters is minus 6%. All right, and last but not least, our Have a Nice Day story. In July, doctors from Shanghai Chest Hospital in China successfully completed a remote surgery using

a robot. The patient, located 5,000 kilometers away from their surgeon, needed a lung operation, which was ultimately carried out within one hour. The primary doctor, Luoao Qingchuan, remained in Shanghai while doctors in Kashgar were present as assistants. Dr. Luo said, this surgery marks a major milestone illustrating the clinical capabilities of domestically produced surgical robots, providing significant advantages to patients, especially in remote and rural areas. The Economic Times has this story, and there's a link in today's episode description.

All right, everybody, that is it for today's episode. As always, if you'd like to support our work, please go to retangle.com and sign up for our membership. Excited to tell y'all that next week, Isaac and I will be at the Democratic National Convention and bringing you some on the ground coverage and interviews. We will talk to y'all next week. For Isaac and the rest of the crew, this is John Law signing off. Have a fantastic weekend, y'all. Peace. was made by Magdalena Bokova, who's also our social media manager. The music for the podcast was produced by Diet 75. And if you're looking for more from Tangle, please go check out our website at readtangle.com.

That's readtangle.com.